Gallery • 25 Photos

Elliot Swanson grabs the ball at the Ole Jorgensen Gymnasium in Neenah, Wisconsin on Dec. 9, 2022.

The Ron Einerson Fieldhouse was unavailable to host Friday’s Boys’ Basketball game against Appleton North because of a concurrent Wrestling invitational that required the usage of the entire facility.  As a result, the game was moved to Shattuck’s Ole Jorgensen gymnasium.  Constructed in 1955, the facility was the previous home of NHS’s principal sporting events when it housed grades 9-12 until Armstrong Campus (and thus the Ron Einerson Fieldhouse) was built in 1972.

Publicity for the game featured an archaic black-and-white image of a game being played in the O.J. Gym juxtaposed next to a cut-out of the present-day team.

The event’s uniqueness invited a massive student section to fill Shattuck’s bleachers.  Though some exciting plays brought the audience to its feet, the Rockets maintained a significant lead throughout the game, with the final 69-49 score not a huge surprise.  It did, however, provide some reassurance for the team, given their 48-87 loss to Wisconsin Lutheran this past Tuesday.

“They bounced back.  I think the team had a little motivation because they came off that loss last week,” Bennett Seaver, sophomore, said.

Shattuck Middle School is set to close at the end of the 2022-’23 school year.  Though a previous deal with Northpointe Development to turn the property into residential apartments was recently struck down by the Neenah City Council, the Neenah Joint School District may put the property back on the market, emphasizing that it will no longer be an educational institution.  And with this being the last high school varsity Boys’ Basketball game to be played at the facility, players and spectators alike were provided a historic environment with special significance.

“Offensively, defensively, we gave it our all.  I think that just being out in this atmosphere, we really came together as a community, and we showed out, I guess,” senior Mitchell Argall said.

Player #3, (Senior) Sam Coulthard, reflected positively on his team’s performance.

“As a team, we ran offense great.  We were in sync with each other and moved the ball. We helped each other out.  It’s something we needed to work on, and we got it done.  The opponents knew how good we were as a team, and they came to play, especially on defense.  They had a lot of shooters; we knew that.  Sometimes they got us on a couple of shots, but we adjusted.  They’re a really good team.  They came to play; we had to fight for it,” Coulthard said.

This year’s Varsity Boys team has eight more games scheduled in the Ron Einerson Fieldhouse.

Following the completion of the new High School building at 500 Rocket Way in summer of 2023, future basketball games will be moved to the new 3,000 seat competition gym at that new institution.